Winnisquam lies long and dark at five in the morning, and the roads along it are the first place a plow truck's headlights find anything to do. Imperial Hauling runs snow removal on that early shift, opening driveways and lots, shoveling walkways and steps, putting salt and sand down where the wind has scoured things bare and glassy. When banks grow too high to push, the snow gets moved off the property instead of stacked into the parking spaces. The lot sits wide open again as the sky starts to gray, and the truck moves on to the next one. Laconia and its surrounding towns are covered from the first squall to the last.